Optimize your blog + Tips for selling on Instagram

I am sending this on the eve of my first vacation of 2017- Mardi Gras! I’ve never been, so I’m quite excited. For your reading pleasure, this issue is filled with lots of tips and interesting reads. As always, I appreciate any feedback you have about my newsletters.

---

✍️ Thoughts 📸

I’ve spent a good amount of time trying to make my blog posts look better for the average reader. In compiling this post, I realized that my load times stunk (0/100 in Google’s PageSpeed). But many people don’t have time to do all the “must-do” items for optimization. So I’ve compiled a few tips that you can take or leave, depending on your time and blog constraints.

Read about blog optimization

3 Steps for Successfully Selling on Instagram

I wrote a 3-step guide on selling on Instagram + a few brand examples to look at.

1. Decide on Your Sales Metrics

2. Set Your Profile up for Sales

3. Craft Sales-Driving Content

💁 Social Media👨‍💻

Inside the Instagram Algorithm

A software engineer from Instagram recently provided some new insight into how their feed algorithm works. The key measures are:

• People whose content you like

• People you DM

• People you search for

• People you know in real life

Instagram Update: Multiple Photos in One Post

For the people & businesses who have so much to share, but don’t want to spam… you can now share multiple photos/videos in one post!

You Can Now Add Animated GIFs to Facebook Ads

Facebook has added the capacity to use animated GIFs in Facebook ads.

Facebook is rolling out job postings and applications

Helpful if you’re an employer!

💻 Digital Strategy 📤

9 Easy Ways to Repurpose Old Content for New Social Media Posts

Just because a post is old doesn’t mean it’s still not shareable. Here are some tips on using the content you already have.

Pixar offers free online lessons in storytelling via Khan Academy

The lessons include both videos and activities for students to complete, and provides a general basis on which to build.

✨ Other Interesting Links ✨

Reflecting on one very, very strange year at Uber

The blog post that spun the tech world off its axis. It’s not exactly a hidden secret that Uber has issues with harassment & misogyny, but my take on this is that it’s an excellent example of how this kind of behavior comes from the top.

Fixed vs. Growth: The Two Basic Mindsets That Shape Our Lives

“At the heart of what makes the “growth mindset” so winsome, Dweck found, is that it creates a passion for learning rather than a hunger for approval.”

🌱Plant Update 🍃

One of my weirder looking plants is an air plant having a pup (top left, coming out from the middle stem). It currently hangs out with Einstein on my bookshelf.